Writing Wednesday: National Novel Writing Month
I have been talking about doing this for years. I have toyed with it but I have never really taken it seriously.
I am not an outliner, so that makes it hard. When I could be spending time writing I get stuck more than I should. This time I have a couple things going for me:
1. I started this project awhile ago. That probably sounds like cheating but it means I have been through a lot of that early trial and error. I’ll use what I have in places but I am not very good at going back and doing edits. I am more like that old fashioned writer retyping and rewriting for each draft. So at this point I think NaNoWriMo is exactly what I need.
2. I have someone to help keep me on track. @_jeremykerr has already had one successful experience and now he is ready for round 2.
3. I am actually outlining. I know I just said I am not an outliner but here is the thing: what I have already done has helped develop a much longer concept of the story. I mentioned the changes I want to make but I am getting a clearer vision of how this ends. Also as I outline right now I can keep up with my brain. I can jump ahead and out line a scene I want to happen somewhere. I can jump back and drop in a note about someone should react in such and such way. When I write freely I have a bad tendency to have my brain jump ahead to the next exciting scene. Outlining lets me do that and still be productive.
4. I have yet to get burned out on this project. Often I get stuck and it goes in the archives. I’ve been working on this project for a while with some consistency and I still think about it as I fall asleep. How can I make this work? How would he react to that?
5. I have started carry a Moleskine so I can write down an idea no matter where I am. I used to get so frustrated because I would have all these excellent ideas while at work or school but when the time came I couldn’t remember anything about them to even get me going.
6. I am not a student. This is the first Fall since before I can remember that I am not a student. That is weird on so many levels. I mean there are a lot of things I am trying to do with this free time, but I am also working part time and looking for full time. So this could be a double edged sword, but applying for jobs as they come up is not as much of an interruption as having constant homework.
So have any of you done it before? Any of you planning on doing it this year or maybe waiting for another year? What would you do to be prepared?
